Why is there so much resentment in this book?
Jewel: "[Cash] stays out there, right under the window, hammering and sawing on that goddam box. Where she's got to see him. Where every breath she draws is full of his knocking and sawing where she can see him saying See. See what a good one I am making for you....I [Jewel] said Good God do you want to see her in it" (14).
This is just one of several examples of the hatred, jealousy, and resentment in the book. Ever since the prelude to the book in class when bro tom identified the Tulls as 'the closest people to friends this kind of family is capable of having,' I have been subconsciously thinking and looking for ways in which this family has problems. I think that some of it probably is not yet revealed because hints are present that indicate secrets exist we, as readers, do not yet know [like what is going on between Darl and Jewel].
. . . Did everyone love Addie? Are they jealous of her love for each of them, in varying measurements? For instance, there is discrepency between the close relationship of Addie and Darl versus the one of Addie and Jewel. But why then is Jewel angry at Cash in the passage above? This cannot be how Cash really felt . . . ?
What are everyone's thoughts towards the feelings and interactions/relationships of the characters? Any further examples??- sfa-c Feb 12, 2008
Death can, and does, shatter a family. I think that is mainly what is going on here. When Addie was alive, the family stayed together. Now, she is dead. The bonds between the Bundrens are slowly falling apart. Their resentment is their way of both cloaking their emotions and venting them. Also, I think that it is safe to say that everyone loved Addie. Anse is carrying out her last wishes, no matter what others tell him, Jewel is angered by his mother's death, and Vardaman is so mad that he beats a team of horses with a stick.
Cash is enigmatic. Why does he build the coffin in sight of his mother? Perhaps he was showing off his handiwork to Addie, because that is what he does best and that is what pleases people. He wants her to be proud of him. When mud gets on the coffin during the journey, he carefully cleans it off, indicating attachment. Or is it merely that he does not want his work to be blemished? I don't think so. He truly loved his mother.- JHe-c Feb 13, 2008
I definitely agree with John when he says that resentment can be someone's way if "cloaking their emotions and venting them," and this is the case with Jewel more than any other character I think. Cora's perspective of Jewel is that he is a selfish boy, even though he was Addie's favorite, who takes three dollars over staying with Addie during her last days (24). I disagree with that. Looking back on the chapter of Jewel on pg. 14-15, I get the sense that his way of dealing with the tragedy of his mom's sickness is with anger, especially at Jewel because he is not helping Addie cope with death when "that goddamn adze [is] going One lick less" (15). All Jewel wants for his ma is for her to die peacefully; "It would just be me and her on a high hill...." He does not like the idea of Cora and Vernon and Kate nad Eula "sitting there, like buzzards." By calling them buzzards, Jewel is implying that they are hungrily hovering around a dying animal, waiting for it to die. He is bitter because he does not want Addie to die like this. - lma-c Feb 13, 2008
Just real fast before I start my own comment, JHe says that Anse is "carrying out her last wishes, no matter what others tell him," but I'm pretty sure that he would have given up and just buried her if Dewey Dell hadn't held him to his promise. Pretty sure.
In this book, the characters do not always say what they are thinking. For example, Vardaman beats Peabody's horses and sets them loose. He does this because he thought Peabody killed his mom. Because people never say what they think or what they mean by acting the ways they do, they are misunderstood. Misunderstanding builds. Resentment is the result. They all react differently when Addie is dying, and they all think their way of dealing is the best. Dewey Dell makes her comfortable while Cash builds her a respectable coffin. Communication is limited between the characters, except with the eyes, and of course telepathically with Darl and Dewey Dell. If they just talked, they would not resent each other nearly as much as they do.
The variation in different accounts of the same events also support this idea of resentment as a result of lack of communication. - KLe-c Feb 15, 2008
I agree that there is definately resentment and I think that some of that resentment comes from competition and jealousy. It is obvious that Addie had a special place in her heart for Jewel because he was the product of her infidelity and perhaps one of the few times she was truly in love with a man. I think that the entire family knows this, but I think Cash is especially jealous. He wants his mother to love him and approve of him more than anything. I think that this is why he works so hard on the coffin: he wants so bad for his mother to show that she loves him and not just Jewel. I think that the other characters also have problems with eachother which are just coming out now because they were hiding their resentment and trying to behave while Addie was dying. First, I think that Anse's problem is that he does not really care about anyone but himself. He just cannot wait to get those new teeth and he is not happy when he has to buy the new team instead. He definately would have buried Addie at the first place he could find if it had not been for his daughter.
I think Darl is having an emotional crisis because he is realizing that he cannot just pretend that his mother never existed. I think that this is causing him to get mad at everyone else. The long journey with Cash's now rebroken leg is not helping matters. I think that the Bundren family is going to really have to pull things together if they are going to get along.- mha-c Feb 21, 2008
I don't think that Cash's reasons for building the coffin are of jealousy. Cash is trying to show his mother how much he cares for her, and since he is not a particularly emotional or sensitive man, he does what he can to show his love for her. I think the coffin is a sign of the love that he is trying to show for his mother. His place in the working world is with wood and tools, and he uses his strengths to proclaim his love. I don't think that he is trying to prove that he deserves more love than Jewel because he just is not that type of person. He tries to make everybody happy and he does it in the only way that he knows how: with his tools. It may come across as insensitive to his mother, like he is trying to get her into the coffin, but I don't think so. I think it's in innocent attempt to show his kindness. - kkr-c Feb 23, 2008
Kkr, I agree with you. Cash is not trying to compete for his mother's love or steal his mother's love from Jewel. I believe that Cash had a broken leg at the time his mother was dieing, and thus, he probably couldn't do much more to comfort her. He used his skills to build his mother a work of art with perfect angles so that she could spend the rest of her life in a beautiful piece of work. In addition, I don't think that this came across as insensititve to his mother because I thought she was always staring out the window to check on his progress. I mean maybe she felt like once it was done she was pressured into dieing or something, but I think she probably was appreciate that one of her sons would spend time creating something for her. Any other comments? - kva-c Feb 25, 2008
I believe it is all the resentment isn't a competition but just a genuine misunderstanding of each other. The family seems so fractured and just selfish really that people are stuck in their own point of views and can't get past them and gain some perspective, except maybe Darl. This is probably a really good reason for Faulkner to format the book as he does because it only strengthens the struggles and inabilities of the family members to see eye to eye on just about anything. It's like with my brother, sometimes I don't understand what he's doing at all and then for awhile I just resent everything he does because I automatically think he is trying for his own selfish needs. It's unfortunate but I believe it's a response that many people have.- mka-c Feb 27, 2008
I always saw the jealousy and resentment in this book as people looking over their own flaws, and trying to shift the blame, at least in their own minds, to other people. Jewel is not being as attentive as he should to his mother, but instead of being able to see his own faults he trys to shift the blame to the things other people are doing. Cash is working to help his mother, and seems to be a comfort to her, and Jewel seems to target him because he is doing exactly what Jewel should be doing, comforting their dying mother, and so Jewel is Jealous of Cash. - jko-c Feb 28, 2008
Jewel: "[Cash] stays out there, right under the window, hammering and sawing on that goddam box. Where she's got to see him. Where every breath she draws is full of his knocking and sawing where she can see him saying See. See what a good one I am making for you....I [Jewel] said Good God do you want to see her in it" (14).
This is just one of several examples of the hatred, jealousy, and resentment in the book. Ever since the prelude to the book in class when bro tom identified the Tulls as 'the closest people to friends this kind of family is capable of having,' I have been subconsciously thinking and looking for ways in which this family has problems. I think that some of it probably is not yet revealed because hints are present that indicate secrets exist we, as readers, do not yet know [like what is going on between Darl and Jewel].
. . . Did everyone love Addie? Are they jealous of her love for each of them, in varying measurements? For instance, there is discrepency between the close relationship of Addie and Darl versus the one of Addie and Jewel. But why then is Jewel angry at Cash in the passage above? This cannot be how Cash really felt . . . ?
What are everyone's thoughts towards the feelings and interactions/relationships of the characters? Any further examples??-
Death can, and does, shatter a family. I think that is mainly what is going on here. When Addie was alive, the family stayed together. Now, she is dead. The bonds between the Bundrens are slowly falling apart. Their resentment is their way of both cloaking their emotions and venting them. Also, I think that it is safe to say that everyone loved Addie. Anse is carrying out her last wishes, no matter what others tell him, Jewel is angered by his mother's death, and Vardaman is so mad that he beats a team of horses with a stick.
Cash is enigmatic. Why does he build the coffin in sight of his mother? Perhaps he was showing off his handiwork to Addie, because that is what he does best and that is what pleases people. He wants her to be proud of him. When mud gets on the coffin during the journey, he carefully cleans it off, indicating attachment. Or is it merely that he does not want his work to be blemished? I don't think so. He truly loved his mother.-
I definitely agree with John when he says that resentment can be someone's way if "cloaking their emotions and venting them," and this is the case with Jewel more than any other character I think. Cora's perspective of Jewel is that he is a selfish boy, even though he was Addie's favorite, who takes three dollars over staying with Addie during her last days (24). I disagree with that. Looking back on the chapter of Jewel on pg. 14-15, I get the sense that his way of dealing with the tragedy of his mom's sickness is with anger, especially at Jewel because he is not helping Addie cope with death when "that goddamn adze [is] going One lick less" (15). All Jewel wants for his ma is for her to die peacefully; "It would just be me and her on a high hill...." He does not like the idea of Cora and Vernon and Kate nad Eula "sitting there, like buzzards." By calling them buzzards, Jewel is implying that they are hungrily hovering around a dying animal, waiting for it to die. He is bitter because he does not want Addie to die like this. -
Just real fast before I start my own comment, JHe says that Anse is "carrying out her last wishes, no matter what others tell him," but I'm pretty sure that he would have given up and just buried her if Dewey Dell hadn't held him to his promise. Pretty sure.
In this book, the characters do not always say what they are thinking. For example, Vardaman beats Peabody's horses and sets them loose. He does this because he thought Peabody killed his mom. Because people never say what they think or what they mean by acting the ways they do, they are misunderstood. Misunderstanding builds. Resentment is the result. They all react differently when Addie is dying, and they all think their way of dealing is the best. Dewey Dell makes her comfortable while Cash builds her a respectable coffin. Communication is limited between the characters, except with the eyes, and of course telepathically with Darl and Dewey Dell. If they just talked, they would not resent each other nearly as much as they do.
The variation in different accounts of the same events also support this idea of resentment as a result of lack of communication. -
I agree that there is definately resentment and I think that some of that resentment comes from competition and jealousy. It is obvious that Addie had a special place in her heart for Jewel because he was the product of her infidelity and perhaps one of the few times she was truly in love with a man. I think that the entire family knows this, but I think Cash is especially jealous. He wants his mother to love him and approve of him more than anything. I think that this is why he works so hard on the coffin: he wants so bad for his mother to show that she loves him and not just Jewel. I think that the other characters also have problems with eachother which are just coming out now because they were hiding their resentment and trying to behave while Addie was dying. First, I think that Anse's problem is that he does not really care about anyone but himself. He just cannot wait to get those new teeth and he is not happy when he has to buy the new team instead. He definately would have buried Addie at the first place he could find if it had not been for his daughter.
I think Darl is having an emotional crisis because he is realizing that he cannot just pretend that his mother never existed. I think that this is causing him to get mad at everyone else. The long journey with Cash's now rebroken leg is not helping matters. I think that the Bundren family is going to really have to pull things together if they are going to get along.-
I don't think that Cash's reasons for building the coffin are of jealousy. Cash is trying to show his mother how much he cares for her, and since he is not a particularly emotional or sensitive man, he does what he can to show his love for her. I think the coffin is a sign of the love that he is trying to show for his mother. His place in the working world is with wood and tools, and he uses his strengths to proclaim his love. I don't think that he is trying to prove that he deserves more love than Jewel because he just is not that type of person. He tries to make everybody happy and he does it in the only way that he knows how: with his tools. It may come across as insensitive to his mother, like he is trying to get her into the coffin, but I don't think so. I think it's in innocent attempt to show his kindness. -
Kkr, I agree with you. Cash is not trying to compete for his mother's love or steal his mother's love from Jewel. I believe that Cash had a broken leg at the time his mother was dieing, and thus, he probably couldn't do much more to comfort her. He used his skills to build his mother a work of art with perfect angles so that she could spend the rest of her life in a beautiful piece of work. In addition, I don't think that this came across as insensititve to his mother because I thought she was always staring out the window to check on his progress. I mean maybe she felt like once it was done she was pressured into dieing or something, but I think she probably was appreciate that one of her sons would spend time creating something for her. Any other comments?
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I believe it is all the resentment isn't a competition but just a genuine misunderstanding of each other. The family seems so fractured and just selfish really that people are stuck in their own point of views and can't get past them and gain some perspective, except maybe Darl. This is probably a really good reason for Faulkner to format the book as he does because it only strengthens the struggles and inabilities of the family members to see eye to eye on just about anything. It's like with my brother, sometimes I don't understand what he's doing at all and then for awhile I just resent everything he does because I automatically think he is trying for his own selfish needs. It's unfortunate but I believe it's a response that many people have.-
I always saw the jealousy and resentment in this book as people looking over their own flaws, and trying to shift the blame, at least in their own minds, to other people. Jewel is not being as attentive as he should to his mother, but instead of being able to see his own faults he trys to shift the blame to the things other people are doing. Cash is working to help his mother, and seems to be a comfort to her, and Jewel seems to target him because he is doing exactly what Jewel should be doing, comforting their dying mother, and so Jewel is Jealous of Cash.
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